iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

samuel gessner @sgessner.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Found them! What is your guess, what do these signs stand for?

Reposted by samuel gessner

Eleonora Andriani @eleonoraandriani.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

I'm especially excited to have contributed three chapters to this volume alongside an amazing group of scholars. My contributions include critical editions of previously unedited texts, and two chapters also present their first complete English translations. I hope you enjoy exploring the volume!

282

Reposted by samuel gessner

Divna Manolova @dulila.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Chasing labyrinths in Belgium led to the discovery of two in Mechelen: one in the Basilica of Our Lady of Hanswijk and another one in front of St Catherine's. It takes 1:43 mins to walk the first one once you identify the entry point. The second is slightly easier to solve😍🙃 @sgessner.bsky.social

201

samuel gessner @sgessner.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

This post made my day! Thank you for sharing, Divna.

120

Reposted by samuel gessner

Stephen Johnston @stephenaj.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Stay to the end and you can hear yours truly almost falling off my chair at the extraordinary armillary sphere images in this C15 Italian Sacrobosco MS - which, thanks to Cary Collection staff, now has a significant role in my chapter for the EIDA project's collective volume (eida.hypotheses.org)

eida.hypotheses.org

Home

EIDA is an ANR PRC project (ANR-22-CE38-0014) that was awarded during the 2022 session. The project aims at developing a new critique of astronomical diagrams of the 8th-18th centuries found in Chines...

031

Reposted by samuel gessner

Stephen Johnston @stephenaj.bsky.social · 07/06/2026

And who knew? A handcrafted 15th-century emoji from the retaining tab of one of the latitude plates! (Those punched zeros and single scratch mark are actually meaningful in the context of this astrolabe - it just so happens that they speak to C21 visual culture rather more cutely....)

An apparent emoji face on the brass surface of a small tab in a 15th-century astrolabe.

2162

Reposted by samuel gessner

BSHS @bshsnews.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

📣 BSHS Outreach & Engagement Project Grants Have an idea for sharing #HistSci with wider audiences? We offer grants of up to £500 to support creative engagement projects — from events to collaborations with museums or heritage sites. Next deadline is May 15, 2026! bshs.org.uk/oec/#project...

bshs.org.uk

Outreach and Engagement Committee – BSHS – The British Society for the History of Science

BSHS – The British Society for the History of Science

01521

samuel gessner @sgessner.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

Where’s that? Looks gorgeous! Any screws?

110

Reposted by samuel gessner

COSMOPOET @cosmopoet.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

🧵🧵Spring brought more daylight and Cosmopoet's second guest author, fellow stargazer 🤩💫and skywalker 🌌👣: Davide Massimo (@davidemax.bsky.social) is this month's Cosmopoet, and he brings us an example of an epigram concerned with the 'image of the sky':

A celestial globe; late ninth-century manuscript. St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 250, S. 472

162

samuel gessner @sgessner.bsky.social · 21/09/2025

There will definitely be spare Planicelia… for whoever wants to experience the super efficient methods of domification and direction made possible by the Planicelium.

100

samuel gessner @sgessner.bsky.social · 20/09/2025

This is a wonderful moment of preparation of the upcoming EIDA workshop. I am most grateful for this support, and look very much forward to see the instruments in action! (Even if, as a consequence, we figure out that we got it all wrong with our reconstruction of this arcane instrument…)

162

Reposted by samuel gessner

COSMOPOET @cosmopoet.bsky.social · 20/09/2025

It is a Saturday and what better activity than building planicelia together with @sgessner.bsky.social and Florence Somer in preparation for Celestial Scripts on Monday!

142

samuel gessner @sgessner.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

Thank you Veronica for presenting us these fascinating vistas from the amazing Tartaglia. Avery relevant author in the context— read by so many all over Europe (including Pedro Nunes, mathematician and royal cosmographer in Portugal).

010

Reposted by samuel gessner

Thomas Morel @thomas-morel.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

🎉 Today's the first day of our "Euclid's Elements and Practical Mathematics" workshop in Wuppertal 📖 I'll try to present the speakers, beginning with Philip Beeley ⤵️

3132

samuel gessner @sgessner.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

Beautiful adventure, many thanks for being persistent and doing much of the heavy lifting! I learned so much from both of you.

110

samuel gessner @sgessner.bsky.social · 27/04/2025

Ärgert mich auch. Aber für die NZZ leider nicht überraschend… da kommen sehr regelmässig Stimmen zu Wort, mit Wasser auf die falschen Mühlen. Zum Glück sind viele Leser schlau genug, solche Artikel mit mit Vorsicht zu geniessen.

000

samuel gessner @sgessner.bsky.social · 21/04/2025

Yes. The regulating mechanism (verge and foliot) was replaced in most 15th and century clocks. It’s a tragedy for the clock historians as so much of the historical evidence has been destroyed through the ‘modern improvement’ by a pendulum. I remember this happened to the planetary clocks…

230

samuel gessner @sgessner.bsky.social · 19/04/2025

Already looking forward to the 2026 edition!

Salle Cassini, with the seventeenth-century brass meridian line on the floor…

140

samuel gessner @sgessner.bsky.social · 19/04/2025

Even more so, to help shape this shared journey: creating spaces for conversations between people and between diagrams from historical manuscripts and prints—in Chinese, Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and various vernacular traditions.

060

samuel gessner @sgessner.bsky.social · 19/04/2025

Just wrapped up the 2025 EIDA conference—once again, an incredibly productive and inspiring gathering. Held in the historic building of the Observatoire de Paris, it was a true pleasure to listen to and exchange ideas with so many sharp and generous scholars—both in person and online.

030

Reposted by samuel gessner

Commission for the History of Ancient and Medieval Astronomy @chama-dhst.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

From June 2 to June 6, 2025, the Training Week: A Global History of Astronomy on Primary Sources: New Approaches, New Digital Tools will take place in Paris. Limited number of scholarships; deadline April 18, 2025. For more details: eida.hypotheses.org/seminars-2/t...

083

Reposted by samuel gessner

David ALBERTO @astrolabe-science.fr · 20/01/2025

Si vous aimez plonger dans le monde merveilleux des astrolabes, cadrans solaires et livres d’astronomie anciens, suivez ce fil de toute urgence. 👇 Thanks @stephenaj.bsky.social for sharing these treasures! #histsci #historyofastronomy 🔭

041